*Written By MSUB Student Clark Swan
BILLINGS Mont.- Over 40 years of work ethic—building, constructing, creating, coaching--and teaching, this is Dr. Ken Karr's life work. Coach Karr's life transcends the mere coaching and building of brick and mortar edifices. He laid the foundations of individual student/athletes as he mentored them to become successful in their own lives.
What defines a career, a life, when does it become one's legacy? After a three year campaign in the Air Force from 1946 to 1948, Ken Karr's coaching and teaching career had its beginnings in 1955 when he earned his Masters degree. He completed his PhD at the University of Illinois in 1964 while carrying a full load of teaching—and coaching football. The most effective way to tell Dr. Karr's story is not by relating dates and locations and statistics—these are all details, of course, but they do not tell the whole story of Dr. Karr's life—it must be told by the student-athlete who he mentored and who played football for him, the coaches who coached with him, and the educators who taught with him.
Coach Karr's legacy began in Billings, MT., in 1958, when he became the head football coach at Eastern Montana College, then a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics college in the Frontier Conference. After a successful reign as coach at EMC, finishing with the second best overall record (29 wins-14 losses) in the school's history, he was recruited by old friend and Wake Forest University coach Bill Tate. They were students together at the University of Illinois years before and Karr became Coach Tate's defensive line coach at Wake Forest University in 1964. Under the direction of Head Coach Tate, the Demon Deacons went undefeated in 1965. While at Wake Forest, Dr. Karr also served as an assistant professor of physical education.
From Wake Forest, Dr. Karr became the assistant athletic director at the University of Arizona where he served in that capacity for three years. In 1969, then president of San Diego State University, Malcolm Love, hired Dr. Karr to help transform the school's athletic department and transition the Aztecs into a NCAA Div-I program. Dr. Karr's foresight in this transformation created many opportunities for San Diego State and put the university on the national radar of athletics. Not only did he schedule major schools to play the Aztecs in football and basketball but he contracted them to play in San Diego. Johnny Majors and Iowa State came to San Diego for four straight years. Also, Oregon State, Arizona, Houston, BYU, and Florida State all contributed to the successful growth of the Aztec's aspirations into prime time college athletics. Dr. Karr's NCAA contracts have lasted well after his retirement from San Diego State University, playing home games against Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Missouri, and Miami over the years.
For Aztec basketball, it was the same story—bringing Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State to play at San Diego State. In 1975, the NCAA appointed Dr. Karr to the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee, considered an exclusive appointment back then. Dr. Karr scored a major NCAA coup when he brought the Final Four to San Diego. Dr. Karr's success in "raising the athletics bar" for San Diego Sate University culminated in his organization of a bowl committee to obtain NCAA certification--bringing the first bowl game to San Diego—now known as the pre-eminent Holiday Bowl.
There are coaches of athletes, there are athletic administrators who run programs, and then there are the moulders and shapers of the character—of men and women—Ken Karr is all of those. When one speaks with Dr. Karr, he will not admit to that. He is a man of few words about himself. The real character of Dr. Karr is learned from others—those who were the direct beneficiaries of his sage advice.
Interviewed for Coach Karr's story were four student/athletes who played for him during the 1958-1963 seasons. Each player continues to have strong emotions and fond memories of their experiences with each other and Coach Karr. Corky Christman played football in 1960-61 for Coach Karr and he speaks with his coach every few months, giving updates from around Montana. Applicable to Christman's life today is what he remembers from Coach Karr's admonitions in 1960, "You are here to get an education—football is secondary! Don't be grandstanding," Christman remembers. "If you want to win the ballgame, play your positions!" Coach Karr would say.
Coach Karr remembers Bill Arbizzani, another local Montana player who played for him from 1958-60. "Bill Arbizzani was a very fine player, a very big boy," Coach Karr reflected. Arbizzani was able to visit with Coach Karr several years ago while they were both in Illinois for a reunion.
In interviewing Coach Karr's players, what is apparent was his passion for detail, and it carried over into his recruiting efforts—even before they got to playing the game of football on the field. Loren Soft recounts some memorable highlights early on in his experiences with his coach. Coach Karr traveled to the football powerhouse of Richey, Montana to recruit Soft. Powerhouse, that is, in 6-man and 8-man football. Soft had never even seen an 11-man football game—before deciding on playing college ball for Coach Karr at Eastern Montana College.
Loren Soft's greatest memory in his four years (60-63) at EMC began after only eight days on campus when his father passed away, wondering how he would be able to pay for and stay in school. Perhaps it was reverence that the coach had for his own father that Coach Karr took Soft under his wing, offering him a chance to play football, with some scholarship money and a job to pay for his tuition. There was one game that stands out in Soft's memory when, as a tribute to all fathers, Coach Karr dedicated the game on his father's birthday, "this is for my dad, win this for my dad!" Coach Karr remembers Loren Soft as "a very speedy wide receiver, a very tough kid." Soft went on to play professional football for the Baltimore Colts.
Soft and Mike Mullowney both remember the challenges in playing football for Coach Karr, not just in games but also the tough practice sessions, for it was here that the character of these student/athletes would be developed for the rest of their lives. Mullowney's recollections yield to his early academic challenges as a 17 year-old kid at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. When academic deficiencies took their toll on Mullowney's athletic eligibility, it didn't keep Coach Karr from recruiting Mullowney to play at Eastern.
Mullowney was toughened to playing football—and running track-- with Korean War veterans Poncho McMahon, Guido Bugni, Fred Moodry, Stomper DuBay, "hairy chested, balding men with tattoos and shrapnel scars coming home to Butte and Anaconda—to play football at Carroll." Karr found out about Mullowney and took him off the farm. He had to sit out a year to get his grades over a 2.0 gpa, but Coach Karr threw him into practices every night with the varsity--"3 yards and a cloud of dust." Mullowney quickly realized with deep gratitude the immediate impact that Coach Karr had on him, "He found time to be my mentor, counselor, tutor, and, he would proof read all my assignments before they were due," Mullowney remembers. "He had a very demanding (again, detailed) way, and yet, he got the results that I became very proud of and took a real ownership in."
Mullowney and Soft describe the tough practices. "Coach Karr would find ways to challenge the players against each other more for personal pride and to make us work harder," said Mullowney. "Coach Karr brought a lot of bodies out to play ball and it was a tough mix of characters—"Montana and Wyoming natives, then throw in the war veterans and 'those easterners'—Big Sal and Little Sal—from New Jersey," Coach Karr confirmed Mullowney's description, "That was the fun part of the war (practice), yeah, those easterners—(Big) Salvotore Benanti, (Little) Sal Verga, Ron Gambish, Ray Willett." Interestingly, the "easterner" pipeline would continue be filled in later years with All Americans, Bill "Wondo" Wondolowski (Bayonne, NJ) and Paul Champlin (Pittsburgh, PA).
One practice in particular, Soft went down with a injury and Coach Karr yelled, "get that trash off the field! Move him over to the other hash mark!" One of the most memorable games, aside from annually playing Kearney State, which was a "feeder college for Tom Osborne at Nebraska," was the game against Rocky Mountain College in 1962. The Yellowjackets overpowered the Rocky Mountain College Bears, 51-0. There were 7000 football fans at Bjorgum Field that day. Coach Karr put his faith into his Montana/Wyoming kids. "These kids all had courage—mostly ranch hands, farm hands—they had no fear, they were very persistent and they worked very hard—it was well deserved," remembers Coach Karr.
Soft and Mullowney also mentioned that Coach Karr had surrounded himself with outstanding assistant coaches in Nels Christiansen and Mike Harkins. Coach Harkins was not only a good football coach; he was a great basketball coach.
When asked about his role at San Diego State, it was obvious that Dr. Karr downplayed his impact, consistent with his self-effacing personality. "We brought the Final four to San Diego Arena in 1975. There was limited seating, only 10,000-12,000 seats. When we brought the Holiday Bowl to San Diego, Jack Murphy Stadium was small, when we were done, there were 50,000 seats," Coach Karr said. "We brought BYU and Navy in to play in the first Holiday Bowl in 1978. We helped bring the fans to the WAC. For forty some years, we worked hard putting people in seats," he remembered.
Through Dr. Ken Karr's efforts at San Diego State, the university was accepted into the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 1978. In an article in the Provo, Utah newspaper, The Daily Herald, (April, 1977), WAC Commissioner Stan Bates announced, ""San Diego State is extremely compatible to the six continuing WAC universities both in academic and athletic stature. We have great confidence in the future of the Aztecs intercollegiate athletic program and are very pleased that they are joining the WAC. The Aztecs bring a well-rounded athletic program to the WAC including a winning gridiron tradition and reputation nationally as a rising power in football." That statement speaks to the attention to detail and work ethic that defines Dr. Karr's legacy at San Diego State—and throughout his entire career in athletics.
When asked about his greatest hope for today and, for the future, Coach Karr reflected, "I hope they (athletics) are able to maintain access for the little fellow—to give him a shot at the brass ring—for the Championship ring."
Coach Karr left an enduring legacy, for it is fair to say that it is the fact that he planted the seed that developed the character in his students/athletes, for their lifetime that defines Dr. Ken Karr. His legacy lives on, in his devotion to the little fellow, giving that fellow the tools to succeed not only in the game of football, but, in the game of life. One of his players said it succinctly, "Oh his behalf, he found a way to produce a winner, on the field, and off the field."
On September 21, 2012, Dr. O. Kenneth Karr, Director of Athletics, 1969-1978, was inducted into the San Diego State Aztec Hall of Fame. Today, Dr. Karr is enjoying retirement near his daughter, Julie, in Pickens, SC.
*Watch for more future feature stories to come…
